


Marinette in Wonderland

by sophiacrutchfeild



Series: Adrinette Month 2017 [10]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alice In Wonderland AU, Are you gonna listen this time?, Cannibalism, Decapitation, F/M, Fluff, Not, Not Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-23 00:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9631079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophiacrutchfeild/pseuds/sophiacrutchfeild
Summary: In which the Cheshire Chat (or the deranged Adrien Agreste) brings his Ladybug Girl Alice (Marinette, his ex-love) to fight the tyranny of the Butterfly King.





	1. Chapter 1

“Are you Alice?”

She spins around. “Who’s there? Who said that?”

“I did.” The voice is soft, and for a moment, she sees a flicker of an image… a boy, with gold hair and eyes that she can’t see. “Are you Alice?”

“I… no, I’m Marinette…”

“I have to find Alice. I have to take her.”

“Take…?”

“Can’t you be Alice?” the boy pleads, still flickering in and out, like a mirage or a hologram. “Please, Marinette, say you’re Alice?”

She looks around, desperately. It’s the biggest city in France, surely someone else is one the street, seeing this… but she’s alone with the boy who seems less and less human, whose outline she can barely make out now, even under the bright streetlights. “If I say that, will you leave me alone?”

He nods. “If you say it, and it’s not the truth, then you really aren’t her, and I don’t need you.”

She has no idea what that means, but she’s pretty sure her name isn’t Alice, so… “Fine, then I’m Alice, now go away!”

She can see his eyes now. They’re wide, and green… a pretty green. He’s about her age, and smiling, although the smile looks incredibly false with the tears in his eyes. “You’re Alice.”

“Yes, I’m Alice.” She starts walking, and he grabs her arm. “You said you’d let me go!”

“I said I’d leave you alone if you said it and it wasn’t true,” he corrects her. “But it is. I can tell. You’re Alice. I thought, as soon as you heard me, but then you said it… and it’s true.”

What the shit. He’s deranged.

Then again, he’s also still flickering in and out of existence… only that false smile is consistent.

“I have pepper spray,” she tells him, reaching into her purse.

“That’s great!” he begins pulling her arm.

She yanks away. “Where are you trying to take me?”

He stares for a minute, and then that smile widens. “Why, Wonderland, of course!” For a moment he’s solid, and she sees his face.

“Adrien…?”

Then, everything fades to black.

…

She wakes up in a forest, held in his arms. “Oh, Alice, you’re awake!”

“My name isn’t Alice…” she murmurs, slowly attaining lucidity. “It’s Marinette. Where are we?”

“I told you, Wonderland…” as his voice trails off, she looks up. He’s wearing a black mask, and… cat ears? Cat eyes too, and leather. If she hadn’t seen his face for that moment earlier, she’d never have known who he was.

As it is, she wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. “Adrien, where have you been? Why are you calling me Alice? Don’t you remember who I am?”

He’s quiet for a moment, and she looks up. The smile is too wide, and it looks like it’s hurting him. He looks twisted, broken… Nothing like the Adrien she loved, last year. The Adrien who disappeared, the day after he kissed her. The calm self-confidence, the subtle grin, and even the clarity in his green eyes… all gone, replaced with insanity, that broken smile, and the eyes of a cat. She doesn’t want to see him like this.

“I… I’m not Adrien. Not anymore,” he sighs. “My name’s Chat. Cheshire Chat Noir.”

“What are you talking about?” she wriggles in his arms, and he sets her down. “Adrien, please. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Wonderland needs us to be Alice and Chat,” he tells her softly. “Marinette, please… we need to do this. Can’t you do this? For me?”

“Is this what you’ve been doing for the last year?” she demands, eyes flashing with hurt and anger. “Being a cat for Wonderland? What Wonderland needs, did you ever think about what Paris needs? We needed you, Adrien.”

“No you didn’t-”

“I NEEDED YOU!” she shoves him away, tears in her eyes. “You can’t just show up and kidnap me and expect me to go along with this.”

He cringes away, still with that smile. “The people here are in trouble. Marinette, I’m sorry I left you, I never meant to, but…”

“Stop smiling like that,” she crosses her arms. “This isn’t a game.”

“I… I can’t…”

“You’ve lost your mind, Adrien!”

“I know. But Marinette, we have to stop him!”

“Stop who?”

“The Butterfly King.”

She falters. He takes her hand. “Please, Marinette. Do this with me, and I’ll come home with you, I purr-omise.”

“You swear?”

“Claw-se my heart.”

She sighs. “Fine. I’ll be Alice, and we’ll play out this fantasy. And then we’ll go back home.”

His eyes light up, and for a moment, the smile looks real as he hugs her. “Thank you, Alice. My little Ladybug girl.” She laughs slightly… she has to admit, being back in Adrien’s arms is wonderful. Even if it’s really Chat right now.

…

They’ve been walking for about an hour, and Marinette’s feeling very, very conflicted.

First off, Adrien’s alive, which is great and everything she’s been desperately hoping for a year.

However, second, he’s completely delusional and thinks they’re in Wonderland and are going to take down the Butterfly King.

Third, she can’t escape because they’re in the middle of the woods somewhere.

And fourth, she’s completely exhausted and they don’t seem to be coming to any real place any time soon…

Until suddenly, there’s a table. With… cookies and soda.

“Um, Adr- Chat? What the hell is that?”

“Who knows? I do, but I shouldn’t say, it breaks the rules, the rules are all that give me the paw-wer we’ll need to fight, fight him, save them…”

He was so much more lucid an hour ago. She sighs, and inspects the table. The cookies have a tag saying “eat me.” The soda says “drink me.” She looks up at Adrien. “Is this poisoned?”

“No…” he starts, and she takes a sip of the soda, “and yes.” She spits it out, eyes going huge.

“What the hell, Adrien?” Why does her voice sound higher? What on Earth is this? “Adrien, why is everything getting bigger… oh my god, oh my god, I’m shrinking, oh my god!” She looks up at him, way up, she can’t be much bigger than a doll now… He lifts her up, and she gives him a terrified look. “Adrien, I’m scared, what just happened?”

“I can’t tell you. You’ve accepted the role of the Ladybug girl Alice,” he hugs her very gently, and she tries to hug him back, but he’s so huge…

“Why are we doing this? Who are we doing this for?” It’s real, she knows that now… or she’s on acid, but she’s pretty sure even acid doesn’t work quite that instantly…

“The Butterfly King is a tyrant. Wonderland is full of magic… but he wants it all for himself. He extracts it from the people…” Adrien hugs her tighter. “He must be stopped.”

“Why do we have to be the ones to do it?”

“Because if we don’t, who will?”

“I… I don’t know…” she grabs his shirt, holding him to herself as best she can.

He sighs, and lifts one of the cookies, handing it to her. “I can’t tell you what it does, or what to do.”

She looks up at him, and takes a tiny bite- not that she really could take any other kind- and feels something warm slip through her, as she shoots up, her feet hitting the ground and her head resting on his shoulder, tears pricking her eyes. “Thank you, Adrien. I… I…” she can’t hold back the tears, and he holds her tightly as the terror crashes through her, and she cries into his shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

She gets up, after a while, wiping her tears away. “So. What does ‘Alice’ do?”

His eyes look warm, and if that too-wide smile wasn’t forced, his gentle, comforting one would be in its place. “Alice goes through the Mad Party, and chops off the head of the Butterfly King, before going home.”

She stares at him. “You want me to chop someone’s head off?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“Adrien, what.”

He sighs, looking like he’s grasping for the words. “I can’t explain everything. If I try, I’ll either confuse you more, or the rules will break and I’ll…” He looks down, like a sad kitten. “I’m sorry, Alice.”

“Adrien, please stop calling me Alice. You know what my name is. You’ve said it more than enough times, but I guess that was back when you actually cared about me,” she pins him with a look of pure steel. “The Adrien I knew would never have left me for a year, and then dragged me into a dangerous forest to chop someone’s head off!”

He looks into her eyes, with those cat-eyes that are nice enough but aren’t really his, and she wants to flinch away. If she didn’t know it was Adrien, she’d be terrified of the inhumanity of the man holding her. “Wouldn’t the Adrien you know trade his sanity if he thought he could do some good in the world?”

“In our world, maybe. But why crazy-world?”

“Still people. Still suffering. I… had to help.”

And… that sounds like Adrien. Adrien, who, if asked, would be willing to take on all the suffering in the world to help someone. Adrien, who loved stories about heroes, something she always made fun of him for. “Right. Of course, yeah. That makes sense… so where do we go? To fight?”

He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath, something that looks terrifying with that smile… “Get through the Mad Party. The Wonderlandians who’ve had their magic stripped and corrupted. And then, we’ll get to the butterfly.”

“And go home?”

“And go home.”

…

They come upon the Mad Party soon enough… a balcony, overlooking the forest, in a creaking old house. The mad folk are mostly teenagers, although some adults, and one little girl running around.

None of them look human.

Marinette feels like she’s going to be sick as she notices that the little girl isn’t a girl- she’s a human doll, with disconnected joints, nailed together, and she’s bleeding. There’s a boy about her age, who seems to be made of paint, and so many others, too horrible to describe.

“Welcome to the Mad Party, Alice,” Adrien murmurs. “We’re all mad here.”

She clings to his arm, cringing as she passes a man with a blank, featureless white face, except for two splashes of black paint that run down his face where his eyes ought to be. The man salutes Adrien, who nods in return.

“Hello, Mr. Mime,” he says cordially. “Tell your lovely daughter Horrifenne I send my regards.”

The Mime traces where his lips ought to be in a smile, before passing away. Marinette is absolutely certain she’s going to be sick.

“Adrien…”

“We have to get past the balcony party if we want to fight the Butterfly King. They’ll either help us or fight us, I couldn’t recall which.” When she glares at him, he puts his hands up. “Traded my sanity in, remember?”

“You are such a damn martyr,” she sighs, looking around her. “These are the… the things you’re trying to save?”

“Manon Chamack.”

She looks up, confused, and he points to the bloody doll-girl. “Eight years old, she could make dolls dance. A fantastic power that she used to make beautiful puppet shows. Otherwise, a normal child. Now, she’s what you see. Her power sapped for the sake of the king.”

Marinette’s eyes widen in horror. “Oh, god…”

“Mylene Haprele,” he points out a ten-foot-tall monstrosity. “She could take away fear. Fifteen now, twelve when she was destroyed, became Horrifenne. Ivan Bruel,” he gestures to a man of stone. “Strength beyond measure. Seventeen. Yes, these are the people- people, not things- I am trying to save, along with thousands like them.”

She looks down. “You’re right. This… this is too… too much. We have to destroy the Butterfly King!”

Every head in the room turns to her.

“Oh, now I remember!” Adrien laughs. “It’s 'fight us,’ isn’t it?”

“Damn it, Adrien…”

The first to attack is a girl who appears to be crafted out of lightning, who strikes with an umbrella… and nearly cuts Marinette, before Adrien gets in the way, taking the skewer right through the chest. He pulls the umbrella out, and it falls to bits, leaving the girl to fade out from existence… “Next up! Come one, come all, step right up to fight Alice and the Cheshire Chat!”

“Um, Adrien, I have no idea where you learned how to do that, but I cannot,” she murmurs to him.

“I know. Alice isn’t destruction, she’s creation.”

“Huh?”

“Cheshire Chat makes things fall to dust. Ladybug Alice makes flowers from the rust.”

She stops to glare at him, just as a vividly-colored boy appears before her, with a wand. “Do you know, certain flesh-eating chemicals make excellent bubbles?”

She gasps, finding herself surrounded.

“Create! Alice, you have to create! Transform the bubbles!” Adrien calls to her, and she closes her eyes, clenching her fists…

Flower petals rain down.

The fights go almost quickly, after that, each member of the Mad Party falling… until only one is left. She sits on a throne in the center, dark curls cascading down her back. “Looks like somebody broke the rules.”

“Princess Volpina!” he bows deeply. “A pleasure to see you.”

Her soft smile is lovely, although the sharp teeth negate the effect. “I know it is. After all, I’m the reason you wear that grin of yours.”

Marinette steps in front of Adrien, eyes wide. “You… you did this to him?”

“He did it to himself, challenging me. Anyway, he knows the rules of Wonderland. The Cheshire Chat can’t help Alice understand what to do. He told you outright to start transforming things,” Volpina explains, twirling a strand of dark hair. “So of course, he must face the punishment.”

She snaps her fingers, and two foxes appear from the ground, grabbing Adrien, and hauling him away, as she cackles, toward the highest part of the balcony… the guillotine stand…

“Off with his head!”


	3. Chapter 3

Marinette screams, lunging forward. "Stop! Stop, you can't do this!"

But she cries go unheard, as the foxes shove Adrien to the ground, and he slides his neck through the guillotine. "Don't worry, Alice!" he calls to her. "I'll be alright!"

"Adrien, no, please," she races up to the platform, but is held back by another pair of foxes. Tears steaming down her face, she struggles against them, in horror and hopelessness. "Please, I just got you back, I can't lose you again, Adrien, I love you-" 

He looks up at her, and his eyes, for just a moment, return to normal- the clear green she so loves. "Marinette, I love you. You won't lose me." 

Then the blade drops, and his head falls to the ground. 

Her scream cuts through the balcony, and the doors to the house swing open with the force. The foxes let her go, and she runs to the guillotine, tears spilling to the ground in wave after wave, as she strokes his hair. "Adrien..."

"Yes?"

She gasps in shock, staring through her tears, as Adrien's head looks up at her, amusement in his eyes. "Y-you're not dead?" 

"I'm the Cheshire Chat," he points out, raising an eyebrow. "I have the power of not making sense. Although I suppose most would rather make dollars than sense, right?" He gives her a wink, and she nearly breaks down again. 

"I thought... I thought..."

"I told you that you wouldn't lose me. Would I lie to you?"

Volpina, still standing behind them, clears her throat. "As touching as this truly is- and to be frank, it's more freakish and disgusting than touching, considering he's bleeding out the neck, and you're, well, you," she sneers at Marinette. "I think this is the part where you and I fight, and I kill you before you can kill the king." 

"I... I'm fighting your fox monsters, or you?" she tilts her head, trying to get herself together. "Because if it's your fox monsters, I'd like to file a complaint about the fairness of this whole thing." She stands up, and... Adrien's head floats up, beside her. 

She decides not to question it. 

Volpina's laugh is sickeningly sweet. "Oh, sweet Alice," she croons. "It won't be fair regardless. You might be able to change the truth, but I can do you one better. I can-"

The ground beneath her collapses in a cavern of dust and decay. Adrien turns to Marinette. "She was getting annoying, wasn't she?"

"And you didn't do that when she was chopping your head off because...?"

He sighs. "Rules of Wonderland. Anyway, once we get rid of the Butterfly King, everything will be fine again I promise."

"Your head isn't stuck on your body, Adrien." 

"Yeah, well..." He turns. "Your grief scream blew the door open. We just have to get rid of the king now, and we're golden, okay Alice?"

"Don't call me Alice," she mutters, but she heads into the house, shaking slightly. 

There's a long set of stairs, and at the top of them, a man in violet sits on a throne, surrounded by glowing butterflies. "Well, well, well," he snickers. "Looks like you really did find her, Cheshire. And to think, I doubted you. Don't worry though. I'll be sure to clean up this little mess of yours."

"She's going to kill you," Adrien replies steadily. 

"Says the floating head with the forced smile, dripping blood all over my nice carpet." 

"He's got a point, you know," Marinette whispers, earning her a look of slight annoyance from Adrien. Well, he deserves to be annoyed after what he's been putting her through! 

"So," the butterfly king grins, getting up from his throne and walking down the stairs... drawing a sword... "We fight." 

She glances around the room, and grabs a flower from a vase, focusing. If she can change it, like she did with the akumas... 

"A yo-yo?" the Butterfly King laughs. "What do you intend to do with that, Ladybug Girl Alice?" 

She thinks, glancing around the room. 

"I believe in you," Adrien whispers. 

"Yeah, considering you brought me here without my permission, you'd better."

The Butterfly King lunges, and she snaps the string of her yo-yo, causing his blade to bounce off. Wait... his blade! Of course!

He goes in toward her chest, and she wraps the string of the yo-yo around his blade, and with a flick of the wrist, pulls him forward, grabbing the sword in her hands... 

He falls to his knees. The blade comes down. 

...

"Marinette... Marinette!" 

Her eyes snap open, and she cries out, tears coming to her eyes, and she wraps her arms around Adrien... Adrien, who is whole, and new, and in her arms, Adrien, who no longer wears a mask and a forced smile... 

"Princess, we're home. When you killed him, the Ladybugs did their job. We're home." 

She looks up at him, and in that moment, his smile is real, and she knows he's right. 

She's finally home.


	4. Bonus!

Adrien Agreste was sixteen when he wandered into Wonderland, and on a whim, agreed to save it.

The Cheshire Chat is seventeen as his bloody head watches the love of his life cut off a man’s legs, and promptly pass out.

He feels the smile etched into his face fade away as the Butterfly King’s lifeblood pours out, turning from blood to Ladybugs, that fly over the countryside, and for the first time in months, his smirk is real. “We both know what happens, now that Alice has made the life cut.”

“You seem excited,” the man growls. “I’d think you’d be horrified by what you’re doing.”

“Not at all,” The Cheshire Chat tilts his head… well, himself, technically, considering the head’s all there is. “Cat are predators. There’s no horror in a cat eating a butterfly.”

The king looks disgusted, but The Cheshire Chat doesn’t care. If this man didn’t want to be eaten, he shouldn’t have let his Princess Volpina go around decapitating people. Mass is needed to regrow a body.

He starts by floating down to the legs, already cut off and not moving, and takes a bite out, feeling a bit of his neck regrow, as blood drips from his mouth. The flesh tastes like tough steak, with a but of a greasy, oily tint there. It’s not exactly the sweetest thing he’s tasted, human flesh, but it’s passable, and his body is, bite by bite, growing back.

By the time he’s finished with the legs, he already has his shoulders, most of his torso, and an arm grown back, although blood still oozes where the flesh cuts off. He looks down at the unconscious Alice… no, Marinette, stirring, and uses his newly-regrown hand to stroke her cheek. “Sleep well. Sleep longer. Sleep until we’ve made it home,” he whispers, and she falls away from her near-waking state, sighing at his touch. The hand is bare, not leather-coated. His own skin.

He floats to the Butterfly King, and lifts the man’s arm, taking a first, harsh bite of living flesh. The man’s screams echo through the manor.

…

Body regrown, and the Butterfly King nothing but a blank-eyed head, drained of blood, on the ground, Adrien Agreste peels off the mask and ears of The Cheshire Chat, and instantly feels ill. 

“Holy shit…” he mutters. “That sure was messed up.” He averts his eyes from the head, lifting Marinette in his arms, and steps out onto the Balcony… it’s snowing, and in the snow, people stand as if just waking from a nightmare. Manon Chamack rubs her eyes, clear, brown eyes, with flesh hands, looking up at him. “Who’re you?” she asks. “What happened?”

“It’s me, Puppet Girl,” he smiles, but this smile is gentle, bittersweet. “Cheshire Chat.”

She stares, and then races to hug him. “You look weird though.”

“I know, Puppet girl.” He looks up to the other mages… the once-akumas. “Alice saved the day. I’m leaving… so this is goodbye.”

“Do you have to go…?”

He looks down at Marinette, sleeping soundly in his arms. “I made a promise.” He turns to Vincent Aza, a man with a magic camera. “Will you send us back, Pixles?”

He lifts the camera, and the lens flashes…

…

He lands on his feet, in front of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, and he shakes Marinette slightly. “Marinette… Marinette!” he beams as her eyes open, and she throws her arms around him.

Snowflakes land in her hair. Snowflakes of rebirth, of awakening. The snow that signals the end of the nightmare. She smiles into his chest.

“Princess, we’re home,” he whispers. “When you killed him, the Ladybugs did their job. We’re home.” No need to tell her what he did, or what he left behind.

He lets her down, and her feet rest over the hardened snow, as he rings the doorbell.

She’s home, and they’re together. Everything will be okay.


End file.
